The Year My Eyes Were Opened
by Liessa Schwarz
Summary: This actaully started with a dream I had, but it's starting to grow from there. Here you'll see a side of Snape not found in the books. It takes place during book 4 with my own character Liessa Schwarz, a 16 year old witch from London. Enjoy!


**_Chapter 1 - Liessa's Date With Snape_**

Liessa always hates summer vacation, but this year was set to be the worst. This year, not only did she not have Oliver Wood to keep her company, but she wouldn't see him at school the next year either…At the end of the last school year he graduated. Not only that, but she broke up with him, and why would she do that? It was all because he was too obsessed with Quidditch. That didn't even matter anymore! Now that he had graduated he wouldn't have anything to do with being a team captain. Many times a day Liessa's thoughts would turn to him and she would often wonder if he would ever take her back…She was two years younger than him, but she didn't care about that. She just wanted to be in his arms again…

"What am I going to do today?" she thought as she woke up one morning in her London home. "I've already been to Diagon Alley this week." She shrugged her shoulders to herself. "Guess I'll just walk around town then." She got up and dressed in one of her favorite outfits: A v-necked tank top and denim skirt. She preferred tank tops because then she could show off the silver armbands that she never takes off. They have a spell on them so that they grow with her. She got them on her fifth birthday. She looked for other accessories and chose three matching bracelets for one arm and one that looks like two connected by two other pieces. She then looked at her necklaces. "Oliver gave me this one…" It was a choker with a small snitch on it. She put it on and left the house without a word to her parents.

Wandering the streets of London may seem like a risky business, but it's even riskier when you do it in a daze. Liessa just walked. She didn't look to go anywhere in particular, but for some reason her feet led her to a mall. She looked at it from across the street, and then looked at the rest of her surroundings. In front of her was a small two story house that looked very out of place indeed. The cream paint was peeling and the garden looked as though it had not been tended to in ages. She then glanced at the mail box. She did a double take.

"Snape?" she whispered under her breath. "That can't be. He lives… HERE?"

Slowly and cautiously she opened the creaking gate and went to the door. She made to knock, but instead her hand went to the door knob. It opened. She stepped inside with an air of nervous curiosity.

"Hello?" No one answered.

Even more slowly, she looked around. The place looked hardly lived in. There was only one couch in the living room and dust seemed to be everywhere except the floor, which was the only thing that seemed to shine. She noticed on the mantle piece and small container and looked inside. "Floo powder." She looked into the kitchen. It looked as though it was never used. Not even to boil water. Her attention was then drawn to the stair case. As she walked up she listened hard for the sound of any footsteps that weren't her own.

On the landing she looked from left to right and chose to go left walking into what looked like the master bedroom. There was only a bed there with old grey sheets. Then the closet caught her eye. She opened the door wider to find the most beautiful dresses. They were in every color. Purple, red, yellow, blue. "These belong to Professor Snape?" She took a magenta one off the rack. "Why would he have all these dresses?" She was putting it up to herself to see if it would fit when she heard a creak from outside. Quickly dropping the dress she ran to the window to see the gate closing and Snape walking up the way with his usual sour expression. Then he stopped and looked up. She didn't have enough time to get out of view. He saw her! He quickened his pace to the door. Not knowing what to do, as soon as she heard the front door open she opened the main window. Footsteps rushed up the stairs but she was already out. She jumped into the garden and ran for the street. She turned to the window after hopping the fence and saw Snape standing there. "Wait!" He screamed, but she already started across the street heading to the best place she could think of for hiding, the mall.

She ran to the first clothes store she saw and looked behind to see Snape chasing after her. She headed straight for the fitting rooms grabbing a shirt along the way. An attendant was sitting by the rooms reading a magazine. As Liessa reached her, she said, without looking up, "They're all full." Liessa looked frantically around.

"Do you have any restrooms?"

"In the back, but they're employ-" Liessa ran to the back. "You're not allowed back there!" the woman shouted, but Liessa wasn't listening.

She ran to the back rooms and found the restroom. Locking herself inside, she sat on the floor holding her knees and waited. It seemed like an eternity. She was started to feel relieved when the door handle jiggled. Then she heard something that froze her blood. "_Alohomora._" The door opened and Snape walked in.

Liessa edged to the far wall. "Please-" she begged. "I'm so sorry. I-I didn't mean to. The d-door was open… Please don't hurt me. I-I didn't mean to…" Tears were rolling down her cheeks. She lowered her head. "I didn't mean to…"

"Those dresses belong-"

"Here it comes," She thought. "I'm going to get expelled. I just know it."

"To my twin sister."

Liessa looked quickly up at Snape. He looked calmly back. There…there even seemed to be a smile on his face. Liessa could only stare back at him, shocked.

"What?"

"You broke into my sister's house. Not mine."

With relief flooding over her, Liessa saw that Snape was wearing an ever so small smile.

"Come," said Snape, holding out his hand to her. She took it and stood. "Let's go for a walk."

Snape took Liessa everywhere and they talked about many things. School and what was to come as Liessa prepared to take her N.E.W.T.s in two years.

"You still dating that boy? The Gryffindor Quidditch captain? Wood?"

"No… We broke up." She absentmindedly reached to touch the choker. Snape noticed.

"He give you that?" He asked nodding to the piece of jewelry.

"What?" She woke from her trance and looked at it. "Oh, yes. It shows why we broke up too. He's overly obsessed with Quidditch. Constantly talking about strategy and his prized _seeker_, Harry Potter…" She clasped her hand to her mouth. Everyone knew that Snape hated Potter. "Sorry, Professor."

"No need to be concerned about it. If you're curious, Wood is still obsessed with the game. He made it to the Puddlemere United reserve team."

"Great…" She ran her fingers across the small snitch. "One day he'll get hurt and then he'll wish he had listened to me about the sport. It's so dangerous… but he loves it just the same…"

They continued to walk and found themselves passing the Leaky Cauldron. As they did two familiar, identical, yet rather unwelcome faces stuck out.

"Hey Liessa," called Fred Weasley.

She momentarily excused herself from Snape's company and walked over to the boys.

"What do you want?" she asked with a note of irritation.

"Nothing," said George.

"Just wondering what you are doing with Snape," added Fred.

"I ran into him and he offered to walk around with me."

"Ah. I see," said Fred with a wicked grin on his face.

"Going for older men now, are you?" George had a matching grin.

"Shut up or I'll hex you when we get back to school!" There was a note of panic in her voice and the whiteness of her hair made it easy to tell that she was blushing hard.

"Fine, fine."

"But we're telling Wood."

"Get out of here," she said with gritted teeth.

The two boys disappeared back into the pub, but could clearly be heard humming, "Liessa and Snape sitting in a tree…"

Liessa rejoined Snape. "Sorry about that," she said as they continued to walk. "They love to bug me…"

"I often try to reign them in, but their almost as hard to deal with as _Potter_ and the youngest Weasley boy."

Liessa nodded agreement.

They continued to walk and quickly lost track of time. It started to get dark and as they looked around, all they saw now were a few homes and what Muggles called a gas station. They walked to it looking forward to a short rest.

As they walked inside, Liessa saw that there was mostly muggle chips and candy there for sale. Behind the counter was a middle-aged muggle woman watching them closely. Liessa suddenly realized that Snape was wearing the robes he usually wore at school. He approached the counter.

"I would like a strawberry ice cream cone." He turned to Liessa as the muggle scooped the ice cream. "Would you like anything?"

Caught of guard, Liessa blushed and looked to the ground. "I-I don't need anything. Really."

"Are you sure? My treat."

Liessa looked up and looked around at what was for sell. Then behind the counter she saw a peanut butter cup the size of her hand. "May I have one of those?" she asked pointing at it.

"We would like one of those too, please," said Snape pointing towards the candy.

The woman picked it up. "₤3.25, please."

"What?" said Snape surprised.

Exasperated, the muggle explained. "₤1.50 for the ice cream and ₤1.75 for the candy. ₤3.25, please."

Snape gave her the money and the two of them left. "Yours was more expensive than mine."

Liessa bowed her head again. "I'm sorry…" There was the glistening start of tears in her eyes.

"Why?"

She looked up. There was another rare smile across the teacher's face. He had been teasing her. She blushed again and looked to the ground.

"I should head home… It's late. Grams'll be mad if I'm not home soon…"

"Is your house connected to the Floo Network?"

"Yes…" said Liessa uncertainly.

"Then you can get there from my sister's house. It's close by."

Liessa looked up to see that he was right. There it was a block away…

Silently they walked to it. Once inside, Snape lead her to the fireplace and took the tin from the mantle.

Liessa looked up one last time. "Again, I'm sorry for what happened today…"

Snape held out the tin as she took some of the powder. "And again, don't worry over it. I needed to get out anyway." Another smiled crossed his face.

Liessa blushed and quickly threw the powder into the fire, but before walking in she turned to him again. "Thank you…" Blushing, she placed a soft kiss on his cheek. She walked into the fire and said, " Brown house, London."

As the room started to spin out of sight, Liessa saw that Snape had a hand to his cheek and was blushing.

Maybe the next school year wouldn't be so bad after all…


End file.
